VANCOUVER – The Canucks were able to solve Tim Thomas for the lone goal of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final last night, but it seems they still want to try to get into his head.

With the way Vancouver’s been talking about Thomas’ tendency to leave the blue paint, you’d think he was the first goaltender to throw off the chains and roam the Earth beyond the crease.

“I mean 90 percent of his saves are where he’s outside the blue paint,” said Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault today during a day off for both teams. “A lot of times he does initiate contact. That’s the way he plays. [Vancouver’s] Roberto [Luongo] played sort of the same way last year. We got in trouble because of that. We fixed that this year. We said [Wednesday] night that we were going to look to get a little bit of clarification on certain situations. We’re sure it was going to be fine. We’re going to do that here in the next couple of days.”

It seems the Canucks are sour over a penalty called against Alexandre Burrows when he dropped Thomas in the second period. In the process of complaining about that call, they might also be trying to get someone to prevent Thomas from doing the things that helped him become the Vezina Trophy favorite this season.

“I don’t think I drew that many penalties this playoffs. Yesterday the one on [Burrows], I went to make the first stop, then the puck was going off to the side. I was retreating back to the center of my net, felt resistance behind my leg, and I was actually just going with it. I was going to basically flip around, flip my body around, to be able to at least have a chance to stop that rebound that went to the side of the net.

“You know, I don’t know. I just play my game. It’s not always in the blue. Sometimes it is. You got to do what you got to do.”

Bruins head coach Claude Julien doesn’t see a problem with the way his goaltender plays.

“I mean, if he gets a chance to challenge, he challenges. The rule is pretty clear. You’re entitled to your ice,” said the coach. “If he steps out and he’s got that ice, he’s entitled to it. That’s what he’s done through the whole process.

“Now, we all know that goaltenders are to be protected. If you’re going to say he’s out of his crease, he’s fair game. That should be the same thing behind the net. I think the league has ruled that the goaltenders need to be protected. If he’s entitled to his ice, and he’s got it, then afterwards I don’t think people are entitled to run over those guys. If Luongo comes out of his net, he’s got his ice, it’s his, it belongs to him. The rule to me is pretty clear so I don’t see any issues there.”

It might be clear to Julien, but it still seems a little blurry to Vancouver star Henrik Sedin.

“That’s his game. He’s always played like that,” said the Canucks captain about Thomas. “I think if you look at [Burrows’] call [Wednesday], he’s a couple feet outside of the crease. I think it’s something the referees know. They know a lot of times when there’s contact, he’s outside the crease, so that’s not a penalty. Like I said, I think the guys in stripes, they talk about that. They know what’s going on. It’s not going to be a problem for us.”

We’ll see Saturday what the referees’ interpretation of the matter is because Thomas isn’t likely to change the style that got him to this point any time soon.

I like this back and forth. It’s really not worth getting into it though. Obviously we’re all passionate about our teams here. It was a fairly evenly played Game One and, in my opinion, the better team won. Do I like watching someone bite a guy? No, that’s pretty bush. Do I like watching Sedin flop on the ice after sticking Ference (albeit lightly) between the legs? No, cause that was just embarrassing. But they won and what Canuck fan is gonna argue that result right? They got it done.
The one retort I would like to make is about us firing Julien during the first round. I would have never suggested blowing up this team (most B’s fans I know had us being serious contenders in 2 years min), but had we lost to the Dirty fucking Habs in the first round, Julien would have been fired. 100%. I think he may have been fired had we even lost to Philly. Having said that, he’s shown everyone what kind of coach he is. Any guy that can take a team that choked so disgustingly last season and make them Finalists and possibly (hopefully) Champions the next, it doing something very right. Not to say I don’t also like what their coach has done too. A lot of adversity to overcome just getting here for both teams.

Ok finally some educated responses back and good for you for calling me out… All I can say as for Luongo’s phsyche(Spelling) and I will take off my rose coloured glasses. He did not start in Game 6 of Chicago. We lost Game 6. Game 7 he played and we won in ot. He has played pretty good since then. That was 2 series ago…. We are still playing so I am not sure how fragile this is with him? As for letting in soft goals well Timmy sure has had a bunch too right? All being said, there are two great goaltenders playing in this series. Two totally different styles. The key here is which team in front of him plays better. We did Game 1 due to the third period. I believe we are faster, more skilled and have better depth. As for Grit well.. that’s where we disagree. You call it dirty, I call it standing up for yourself. The burrows hit/bit is a moot point except for which team has more discipline from now on. If Julien only had the brains to put Chara on the point and let him blast away with Lucic in front this might be a series. Can I stay here now that I have given you the grail to your pp woes?

Game on Bruins Fans, please don’t riot like we did in 94 when we lost in the finals, that was embarassing.

Steamer,
What does your post have to do with mine? The way your team plays is dirty as it gets in the NHL. Sure there is skill mixed in there, but your goalie is so mentally fragile that if he isn’t staring a playoff game he has to be in the locker room! There is usually a fair amount of back and forth with little jabs and slashes in the NHL (which are all dirty, but that is not what I am judging this by) however Vancouver goes beyond that. Snowstorms from multiple players, players with reputations as instigators and filthy players and two of the more self-absorbed, condescending top line players in the league a clean team does not make. Kesseler was one of your cleanest forwards in game 1! Seriously!! Maybe you are used to watching that, but I suspect the truth is a huge amount of hypocrisy is deep-seated among your fanbase. Whenever anyone screws with Luongo, we hear about how cheap the play was, how there was no call, blah, blah, blah. If all we had was a dead play it would have been fine by me. Truth is, without the penalty Timmy still would have stopped you from scoring because he has this thing called mental strength. Luongo should try it sometime. Burrows got a penalty because the officials saw him as getting out of control, as the game was for a while. That why they called so many penalties. You should also stop commenting unthoughtful comments if that’s all you have. So far your comments have been less than insightful, and really fail to see the game through anything other than ebony-colored glasses (because rose-colored just isn’t tainted enough).
That said, Luongo made about 5 real good stops in game 1 and just let the rebound makers bounce off and let the defense do the rest. He was good, but you D made sure he didn’t have to be great. They really took away all our good rebound chances and didn’t really give us more than one or two good opportunities in the high slot. We will have to adapt to that, but once we do (and we will soon), if the same effort is exerted continuously the series will become real tilted in a hurry.
See? is it so hard to give a realistic analysis of hockey, Steamer? If you have a hard time doing it, you may want to go back to a canucks blog.

So many things to respond here, Steamer and RD… let’s keep it at one each.

Steamer: “show of ineptitude”… no argument there. And believe it or not you are not the first to point this out. But last I checked Vancouver was also 0/6. Equally inept. It’s not how good you have been, it’s how good you are in this series. And if the Canucks roll out that kind of PP percentage, well, they have no advantage at all.

RD: as for the “entertainment”… I think I remember you trying to talk some Bs fans down from the ledge at the time. It was a noble move, and generally you seem to a reasonable guy (except for the fact that as a Habs fan you frequent a Bruins blog). But anyway, if you are insinuating that Bruins fans are any more reactionary than other teams’ fans, well, I have two phrases for you: “911” and “police investigation.” Now *that’s* entertainment.

David,
With Boston’s power play do you really think we are scared of that show of ineptitude. really it was not a slew foot… Your defense man pushed him into your own goalie… Hmmm should i try and avoid a goalie or run him and take my chances with you pansies. Arrogant , instigators Vignault is clearing playing head games with the media and you schmucks…

Thats how we finished first overall right… Maybe you should bring back the conspiracy theories that the NHL wants a Canadian team versus a original 6 team?

Jon Casey used to go all the way out to the bottom of the faceoff circle.
Rule 69.4 states that a goalie is not fair game if he is out of his crease. The only permissible contact with the goalie in this case would be incidental contact.http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26480

Now I hate the Canadiens as much as any other Bruins fan, but after watching Vancouver, I have to say that I have only see one team dive more, and not even Philadelphia is as poorly behaved as these screw jobs from Vancouver. They have about everything to hate about them: An arrogant, self absorbed goalie, more instigators than an L.A. gang, and a top-liner with a taste for human flesh! Players like these should never win the Stanley cup!

MCK, I have to agree. My favorite moment in game 1 was after H Sedin made his melodramatic dive from an Andy Ference shove. After the play you could see AF grinning incredulously and going up to Henrik with clear sarcasm, “Hey! You OK? You OK?” For some reason I found that really funny.

Clearly a slew foot and 2 minutes, doesn’t matter if he’s a goalie or not you can’t kick a guys feet out anywhere on the ice.
Vignault, despite pissing us all off, is doing a great job for his team. He’s trying to rattle Timmy, he’s trying to get guys to take retaliatory shots on Luongo, Burrows, anyone for that matter. You don’t have to like him but you gotta respect the way he’s coaching.

Divers and whiners. Shut up and just play. You tripped TT you effing moron. It had nothing to do with where he was on the ice. Shut the eff up and just play. Enough crap in the media. Le Chiefre tried this garbage before Game 6 and sure enough, the Bolts got a bevy of insanely bad calls go their way, leading to 3 power play goals. I bet this douche Vigneault saw that and decided to pipe up.

In other news, next time one of those queen Sedin brothers dives like he has been shot, I think a Bruin should go over and skate over his face. Then the Bruin player can say it wasn’t intentional.

I agree MCK. Gerry Cheevers wasn’t challenging shooters? Goalies weren’t always 6’3 and the last time I checked either is Timmy. What a crock. The ‘nucks sure love whining. Nothing worse that a sore winner. I know what they’re trying to do and hopefully the zebras will see through it.

In a game this year in Buff, Thornton made contact with Miller while he was out of the crease. The puck went into the net from a shot by McQuiad at the top of the left circle, who made a great move to get some space. The goal was disallowed and Thorts got 2 for interference. I was surprised by the call, but the “his ice” rule was what was used in rationalizing it. The last thing that the NHL is is consistent and I know that this precedence means nothing for this series, but I’d hope to see it upheld.

CBC made me wanna puke after that call not understanding why it was called. It doens’t matter where the goalie is if you take him out. Whether Timmy embelished or not, we all know what Burrows motive was. A little bump on the goalie is fair play if he’s out there but you can’t take him out. If you could then everyone would run the goalie when he came out to play the puck.

That was my reaction as well, Paddywan. Sure, goalie’s outside the crease, you give him a bit of a bump, no big deal. But a slew foot deserves a tripping penalty; in my eyes that’s what it was, so I don’t understand why that play is even being discussed. So tired of the bias on HNIC.

I still hate Alain Vigineault. That smug little porker… the way he’s talked about other teams, especially in the post-season, has always come with a hint of some self-instilled superiority complex. His wry smile and general mannerisms make me sick. If the hockey Gods exist, they will not let this lint-licker anywhere near Lord Stanley. He can act like Timmy’s style is something that needs to be “fixed”… too bad Timmy and Rinne both smoked Luongo in the Vezina race by a clear mile. Nucks aren’t taking it this year. Once the B’s get a puck in the net on Luongo, the poor schmuck beats himself mentally.

Really, is there contraversy over that call? It was a slew foot albeit with a little encouragement in that direction from whomever our D was at the time. I find it funny that a club well known in the past for complaining about goal-tender interference are now suddenly against it. Timmy wont care, if you hit him outside the paint he’ll get up if you come into his paint you’ll get a few blockers in the face, it’s how he plays and as long as we don’t have any Winter Classic repeats i’ll enjoy it.